Thursday, April 12, 2012

The last episode of Bleach. Never thought I'd see the end of this anime, for realz. I started watching it via Netflix in 2008 or so. I never even considered introducing it to DJ because it's really for older teens, and as far as I know he didn't seem interested, anyway, but the night before last I was watching the very last episode, was halfway through and DJ walks in and says, "what's that?" I explained and he decided to watch the last episode. I said, "are you sure you want to start with the last episode? Don't you want to see the earlier stuff first?" But he was all whatever so, whatever. He hasn't been clamoring to watch any more of it, probably testament to how boring the final season was. Oh well, it's something he'll probably get into in a few years.

The show we've been watching avidly, though, and this is one of those Bad Parenting Anime Moments, is Gintama, based on the manga by Hideaki Sorachi. It's a gag manga, and the anime follows the manga pretty faithfully. I like how it takes place in an alternative Edo (the continual return to Edo in Japanese media has been an interest of mine), where aliens come to earth and take a liking to Japan and so they settle there. The samurai fight back but are overpowered by the alien technology, and now samurai have been discredited and restricted from having real swords. So Gintama, a former freedom fighter against the aliens, is an odd jobs samurai who is helped by an alien girl named Kagura and a student samurai, Shinpachi. DJ is still wrapping his head around the aliens in Japan and the fact that Kagura is an alien yet Gintama is okay with her, but he loves the overall story.

The show's for older teens and adults, kind of like Bleach, and there is actually more adult situational stuff than I'm comfortable with. But I can't help it, it is a funny show and even though some of the humor is geared towards 10 year-old minds, it's not something 10 year-olds should probably watch. Maybe I'm being too much of a prude, but that's kind of a moot point, anyway.

Monday, January 02, 2012

Haha, the last time I posted was last July, so fast-forward to January 2012 and Happy New Year! Will update soon with what DS and I have been watching - right now he's going through a Speed Racer redux, and it's been fun to go through the episodes we have on DVD. Not so crazy about Scooby-Doo anymore, which is sad in one sense but I think there'll always be a soft spot in his heart for those meddlin' kids and their dog. His advancing age (he's almost 10) makes me think he's ready to handle Gatchaman so thinking about changing back to the 1-DVD-at-a-time plan with Netflix and go through the ouvre again - I think I'm ready to go back and tackle these, as well, now that I have a bit more Japanese subtext under my belt.

About SMC

SMC is a very, very neglected blog so don't expect many posts constantly. I mostly use this as a venue to talk about cartoons I'm watching with my son or my growing obsession with current and old anime. For more blog posts on what I'm doing, please see The Accidental Environmentalist, my less-neglected blog about living environmentally.